AccuRadio Song Of The Day-David Hazeltine

Artist:David Hazeltine

Song:My Ship

Album:For All We Know

Jazz pianist David Hazeltine has been performing in New York City clubs since 1993. He has recorded for jazz labels since 1995 and he also tours. He has never recorded for one of the big jazz labels so he's gone under the radar. He usually performs and records with a trio. He was born Oct. 27, 1958 in Milwaukee. He began studying piano at age nine. And by age 13 he was playing local clubs. After studying at the Wisconsin College Conservatory of Music, he started playing midwest clubs and was the house pianist at the Milwaukee Jazz Gallery. He played with visiting jazz musicians. After Hazeltine played with Chet Baker, Baker told him to move to New York which he did in 1981. He returned to Milwaukee to be chairman of Wisconsin College Conservatory of Music's jazz department from 1985-92. Then he returned to New York. Hazeltine first recorded in 1993. He has recorded for jazz labels like the Dutch label Criss Cross, Sharp Nine Records and the Japanese label Venus Records. My Ship is from the 2014 album For All We Know on Smoke Sessions. Musicians are Seamus Blake on tenor sax, David Williams on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. All three are veteran sidemen. Hazeltine wrote most of the songs. But My Ship was written by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin for the 1941 Broadway musical Lady in the Dark. It did not appear in the 1944 film version but was in the 1954 TV production. It was first recorded by jazz singer Ernestine Anderson in 1958. Plenty of jazz singers have recorded it. The most significant recent recording was on the 2002 album Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall by Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove. My guess is that's where Hazeltine heard it. I don't think it's been recorded enough to be a jazz standard. This album is available on CD. Hazeltine's latest recording as a leader was in 2022. He is currently on a European tour. He will return to New York in May. Here's David Hazeltine with Aldo Zunino on bass and Bernd Reiter on drums performing My Ship in Cologne, Germany Mar. 2, 2023.